Introduction
The most reliable and safe way to restore Outlook backup is to let the built-in Import and Export wizard walk you through the process.
Note: These instructions assume you've already backed up your Outlook emails, contacts, tasks and appointments either by exporting or copying .pst manually.
Instructions
To import the backup to your new account, perform the following steps.
- Click File > Open & Export > Import/Export to start the Import and Export wizard.
- Select Import from another program or file and click Next.
- Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
- Use the Browse button to select the backed-up pst file.
- Note: If you made a backup using the Export wizard and did not change the default location, pst was saved to the following folder, which is selected by default:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Outlook Files\backup.pst
- Under Options, choose how you want to deal with duplicated items, and click Next.
- Note: In most cases, it makes sense to go with the default Replace duplicates with items imported
- Enter your password and click OK if your Outlook backup is password protected.
- In case you have two or more Outlook accounts, select Import items into the same folder in, open the drop-down list, choose the account where you want to import the backup, and click Finish. If you have just one account, you can leave the default selection, whichever it is.
- If you want to restore the contents of one specific folder, click Inbox, expand the folders hierarchy under Select the folder to import from, and choose the desired folder. To import all subfolders of the selected folder, make sure the Include subfolders checkbox is selected.
- Clicking the Finish button will start importing the contents of your .pst file immediately, and the progress box will stay on the screen until it's finished.